The heart-shaped boxes are empty. The milk chocolate hearts have been divested of their red foil wraps. Valentine’s week has come and gone.
Photo by Jessica Loaiza on Unsplash
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Elementary particles — is that all there is to us?
Songwriter Meredith Willson thought he knew why the sky is blue and birds sing. Nobel-prizewinning physicist Steven Weinberg thinks he knows too.
Photo by Luke Ellis-Craven on Unsplash
Out of the office, but never out of the loop
Later this week, thousands of scientists from around the world will gather in Boston for the [1993] annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They will lug to the meeting laptop computers, modems, fax machines, cellular telephones, beepers. Circuits in and out of Boston will be humming.
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Just dial ‘N’ to order an offspring with ‘niceness’
Are you ready for this? Sperm sorting. I’m not kidding.
ATLAS experiment at CERN • CERN (CC BY 4.0)
Particle accelerators and matters of faith
It is a common conceit among high-energy particle physicists to compare their giant accelerating machines to the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages.
C. Raymo Sr.'s slide rule • Photo by Tom Raymo
The passing of the venerable slide rule
My father’s slide rule. I found it at the back of a bureau drawer during a recent visit to my mother’s home in Tennessee.
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The shifting spectrum on animal rights
My walk to and from work each day takes me through land administered by the Natural Resources Trust of Easton. It was there I met the deer.
Photo by Enrico Carcasci on Unsplash
Australia’s furry little beast could be the perfect symbol
News from Down Under: Koalas are under siege.
Image by athree23 from Pixabay
True nature of math remains, in sum, a mystery
If you are afflicted with math anxiety, you may not like what I’m about to say.
W. W. Denslow illustration from "The Wonderful WIzard of Oz" (1900)
To light the fire of science, start with some fantasy and wonder
Every year about this time I am asked by friends and colleagues to recommend good science books for kids, to fill the remaining hollows in Santa’s pack.